Brad Schipke compares trauma processing to interval training: short bursts of feeling the pain, then rest. Start with 15 seconds of processing and 2 minutes off, gradually increasing as you get stronger. Small, paced steps beat trying to handle it all at once.
Just like interval training with physical exercise, we do the same thing with emotional processing and trauma processing. We spend a certain amount of time in the pain and then we take a break and we take a certain amount of time in the pain and then we take a break. It means you are doing sets of processing or sets of emotional release. It could be 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, it could be 30 seconds on, 1 minute off, it could be 2 minutes on, 2 minutes off. It doesn't matter. That's just what any sort of processing session looks like. As you get better with emotional processing, you can spend more time in that state of processing and less time in the rest. In the beginning, don't feel bad if you're doing 15 seconds in and then 2 minutes out and then you go back in for 15 seconds. So start wherever you are, but know that's how you approach the trauma. You don't do all of it all at once. You do it in little steps and little intervals like that.
